Furlough for Pharmacies

bruno18

Pharmacies are an essential shop for people during Coronavirus and must stay open of course.
However we should not need to have customers instore unnecessarily and exposing staff to the virus to take home to family.
Question is can the owner send some staff home, limit the numbers and operate the store for essential medicine with reduced staff and claim the 80% wage back from government for the staff sent home or is that for all the actually closed businesses. 
So much ambiguity around this cant find a straight answer.

neilmcl

I don/t see why not, as long as you officially put them on furlough and continue to pay them their wages.

7Phil

What you are thinking of doing is quite specific and I doubt there will be a straight answer to help you decide this on your own.
The advice says "all UK employers will be able to access support to continue paying part of their employees’ salary for those employees that would otherwise have been laid off during this crisis." So, if you were scaling back your business to survive and the employees otherwise have no work to do and you had to do that to keep the business afloat then yes that's what it is there for.

In your case you are scaling back your business to switch to a healthier mode of operation however you weren't likely to have to lay workers off as your business is not going to be impacted... I don't think that is what the scheme exists for despite your best intentions.
It's a bit too specific, seek professional advice. I don't think all claims can be heavily scrutinised immediately and any UK business that follows the instructions on the guidance will probably get on the scheme. I would be dubious to see a pharmacy using this scheme though.

bruno18

Yeh I don't see the issue. Minimises the gathering within a shop and decreases potential spread.
Can we get some concrete proof, maybe get Martin on the case for this but for any company that is still open but doesn't need all their staff.

7Phil

No - I think what I was suggesting is that the scheme probably isn't available if you were not going to otherwise lay them off.
If your business is impacted and you need to reduce staff numbers as a result of that, then you can access the scheme. But you describe a grey area and I am not sure if making a business choice to change your operations and lean on the 80% scheme is exactly what it is intended for.

You are also saying you would reduce your staff numbers in order to reduce customer numbers - this logic does not make sense to me. The customers aren't going to stop coming in because you have less staff working. In fact that would actually create more crowds as they all have to queue for longer right..?

bruno18

Hi Phil, 
Everyone should be doing all to stop the spread. We should have less instore interaction. Customers arrive with essential lists and staff and get that for them. They can also pick up there prescriptions at a certain time.
Makes no sense having everybody in a shop plus numerous staff. We would still cater to all these people on a slightly slower turnaround but they cant freely roam the shop.

7Phil

I'm agree that with that, and I am sure you need to adapt your business practices to keep everyone safe.
I am trying to help you interpret the guidance available online but as I said: you have a grey area and I don't think you will get a direct answer without professional advice.

bruno18

Thanks for your help Phil. Appreciate it

Keruge

bruno18 said:

Pharmacies are an essential shop for people during Coronavirus and must stay open of course.
However we should not need to have customers instore unnecessarily and exposing staff to the virus to take home to family.
Question is can the owner send some staff home, limit the numbers and operate the store for essential medicine with reduced staff and claim the 80% wage back from government for the staff sent home or is that for all the actually closed businesses. 
So much ambiguity around this cant find a straight answer.

My local pharmacy does not let customers in, it has put a notice on some chairs blocking the entrance,  saying once person at a time, queue outside 2.5m apart.
One member of staff brings out the prescription to you at a distance and asks what box you tick on back if any and signs on your behalf.
The staff were also working at 5m apart and they had a fan blowing air out of the work area.  Staff all had good masks.